Chapter 4: Peanut Butter and Schooling

Crystal McKnight quietly crept out of his bedroom, tip-toed through the living room, and headed towards his kitchen. It was still dark inside the apartment, but there was enough of the bright morning light seeping through the heavy curtains for her to make her way through his man-cave. The twenty-year old girl was clad only in a large men's dress shirt that draped like a tent over her nude body. The shirt still smelled of him, and she luxuriated in the drench of his scent. Her bare legs trembled and her hips shifted oddly as she walked, her body still adjusting to the savage reaming she had just enjoyed for the last few hours.

Nobody back home is going to believe this, she said to herself. She could hardly believe it herself. She grinned in pride and hugged her arms around her, squeezing more of the musky manly scent out of the shirt. What a man!

She slipped into the kitchen, looked in the refrigerator, and then around the cupboards for some coffee. She glanced at the clock. It was after eight in the morning. She wasn't worried. Her next class wasn't until ten-thirty. She felt strange, realizing the odd juxtaposition of her being in HIS apartment, HIS kitchen, after a long passionate night of being in HIS bedroom, with HIS cock stuffed up her little kitten, of HIM sending her through orgasm after orgasm, and now she was wondering if she could make it to her Economics class? These things just did not go together. She found a can of Diet Coke and a jar of peanut butter. She pulled a spoon from the drawer, scooped up a wad of peanut butter, and licked it sensuously as she sipped the soda and wandered back to the living room.

<Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock>

She frowned, and headed towards the front door, but stopped when she realized that the knocking wasn't coming from there. She looked through the peephole just to make sure. Nope. No one was there. She turned and looked about the apartment, trying to figure out where the sound came from.

<Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock>

The balcony? She made her way to the window and opened the curtains. The bright sunlight blinded her momentarily, and when her eyes adjusted, she blinked in disbelief as she saw the young green girl floating outside the balcony door.

Her jaw dropped.

The floating girl at first looked disappointed at the sight of Crystal, but she then smiled to her and waved cutely. "Can I come in?" she called.

"Um..." It took her a moment for her brain to engage, and she opened the patio door and stepped back. The girl floated into the room.

"Hiiii! I'm Snow Angel! Is he in?" she asked.

Crystal blinked. That's two I've met now, she thought to herself. Her eyes scanned the superhero down and up. She had heard of Snow Angel before, and had seen pictures of her, but had no idea the heroine was so short. Or young. She was still a teenager.

She nodded. "Um, yes."

There was an awkward moment of silence. The superhero was watching her expectantly, and occasionally glancing down at her body, checking her out. She saw Snow Angel's eyebrows bounce in admiration as she peeked at Crystal's bare legs. Crystal tried to casually hide her legs by crossing one in front of the other.

"Well, can I see him?" the superhero asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh. Um, ... Let me ... Let me get him." She stumbled back nervously, and headed towards the bedroom, watching the floating emerald sorceress continuously, and she nearly tripped as she stubbed her toe against a table. Snow Angel giggled to herself and she bobbed in mid-air.

She reached the door, and wondered if she should knock first, but then she remembered that SHE was just sleeping in there. It felt kind of silly for her to knock. She opened the door and crept inside.

"Um..." She hesitated, not knowing what to call him yet. Honey? Sweetheart? Dear? Lover? It had only been one night. "Bullwhip?"

The large African-American man stirred under the covers. His dark eyes opened, and focused on her.

She pointed to the living room. "Snow Angel is here?"

He digested this, and nodded. Bullwhip then sat up, the covers slipping off his nude, well-defined frame. Crystal's eyes dropped down over his massive and tight muscles. She swallowed as she felt her legs shake.

"Is it an emergency?" he asked in his rich baritone voice.

Her mouth dropped open in surprise. She didn't know. She blamed herself for not asking such an important question. But then, it didn't appear to be an emergency. "I don't think so," she settled on.

He nodded again, stood up, and reached for his robe. Her eyes immediately dropped down to his large, thick, dangling penis. Even flaccid it was impressive, and her knees weakened at the sight. It distracted her entirely as his robe wrapped around him all by itself.

Crystal reverently slipped out of his way as he walked past her to meet the other superhero. She watched them with fascination as they met. Before last night, she had never even met a superhero. Now after being seriously fucked by one, she was seeing first-hand two of them interacting. Their eyes locked, and Bullwhip nodded to the sorceress.

Snow Angel gazed at him intensely.

"Snow. 'Sup?" he said.

She lifted a finger and the tip glowed green. Crystal startled, and watched the girl as she traced a small glowing circle in the air before her face, and inscribed it with floating green magical glyphs.

Bullwhip frowned. "I don't know magic, but even I recognize that spell. Are you..."

"Uh-huh," she answered. The circle flared and she peered through the circle at him. "And you're not the guy," she said with a mild level of disappointment.

"I could have told you that," he answered. "How are you feeling?"

She wiped the circle away with a wave of her hand. "The usual," she answered with more than a hint of frustration. She cocked one eyebrow up as she considered him. "How much energy have you got?"

He smiled slyly, and he nodded his head towards Crystal. "This little lady wore me out all night. Could use a boost."

Crystal dropped her jaw again, and blushed. "Um, sorry. Listen." As she said this, the two superheroes turned their heads and watched her. She suddenly felt extremely awkward, first for having the audacity to ask two superheroes for both of their attentions, and then actually getting it. "I, um ... If you two need to go save the city of something, I can let myself out."

Bullwhip gave a furtive grin, but Snow Angel smiled broadly. And she sparkled. She literally sparkled with new glints of refracted light twinkling over her. The sorceress sensuously lifted her arms up over her head, stretching her lithe body and bobbing higher in the air. She moaned in her morning stretch, and started glowing. Green waves of energy throbbed from her form, flowing from her heart and traveling across her body and limbs in ripples that blossomed and evaporated as they passed the tips of her fingers and toes. The waves emitted a soft, pulsing hum which grew louder with each passing second.

Crystal took a nervous step back. She glanced at Bullwhip, and watched him as he flexed his fingers and tilted his head, stretching his neck. The thick muscles in his neck strained and she heard his spine crack with the release of morning stiffness. He spread his feet a bit, flexed his knees slightly. His muscled body tensed and braced. His robe also seemed to ripple and move on its own accord. And she could hear him breathing deeper, filling his lungs with air in preparation for something strenuous.

She took another step back.

Snow Angel drew her arms inward, clasped her hands together, and strained. A power built within her, and she released it. As she threw her arms outward, a massive wave of green energy flooded the room, followed by a chilled breeze that cooled Crystal's bare legs, Snowflakes erupted from the sorceresses back, forming the outlines of two great seraphic wings. They flapped behind her, stirring the cold air about the apartment. The air tinkled with the sound of frozen chimes.

Crystal's mouth dropped open again. She backed against the wall and dropped her Coke and spoonful of peanut butter.

"HEE-YAA!" Snow Angel suddenly did a quick maneuver where she curled up in a fetal position, pitched backward, upside-down, and forward, and stretched out again. Like an Olympic swimmer flipping in a lap, she pushed both feet against the wall and hurled herself towards the behemoth man, screaming in a violent rage as she tackled him.

Crystal shrieked with terror and her heart lurched as she watched the pixie-like 95 pound girl slam into 300 pounds of roaring man-mountain that was her lover. There was an explosion of snow, and she ducked and saw the tiny sorceress throw the massive man back and out of the room. Her brain flipped upside-down as she processed it. It was like watching Tinker-Bell play professional football, slamming into a defensive lineman, and winning. Roaring and screaming, ripping and thrashing sounds emitted from the bedroom. She could see bits of blue and green fabric, torn pieces from Snow Angel's costume fluttering and falling.

She ran after them, her heart pounding and her stomach twisting in fright. Bullwhip! What was she doing to him? He was strong and passionate, but he was so kind to her, so gentle. She had no idea what Snow Angel was so angry about, but she had to stop her. He just didn't deserve to be...

That was a far as she got in her thoughts, because at that moment she saw what they were really doing.

They were having sex. It was rough, violent, wrestling sex. She had thrown him on the bed, but the massive man quickly grabbed the pixie girl and twisted her around and smashed her against the mattress. His robe was gone, and so was most of her costume. Snow Angel's tight bodysuit was reduced to shreds of cloth, leaving her mostly naked from her shoulders to her thighs, but her arms and legs were still clothed. He was growling and roaring, a naked beast savagely attacking a waif of a girl while she shrieked and wailed under him. Snow and green energy blossomed from her, while the sheets and blankets rippled with life and wrapped about the young girl's limbs, pinning her down and spreading her legs open.

Crystal's eyes locked on Bullwhip's massive erection, and she gasped at the sight of it. She could hardly believe it the first time she saw it, it was so fucking huge. It was just last night that he carefully guided it into her love canal, cautiously working the lubrication, gently coaxing her to relax her muscles until he managed to fill her being with that tower of meat. Her legs still trembled at the memory. But this girl, this emerald-toned sorceress was still a teenager, and there was nothing careful about this. His colossal organ swayed and bounced over her abdomen, easily spanning the distance from her labia to past her navel. And the width, the girth of this battering ram was as thick as her arm. There was no way it would fit inside this girl.

"IN! IN! IN! IN!" Snow Angel shrieked and pleaded, and Bullwhip grabbed her breast with one hand while she took a step back. Holding his monstrous cock in the other hand, he lined his fat cock-head up against her lips and rubbed it up and down her opening.

Crystal shook her head in disbelief, and leaned against the wall. Her legs were going weak with desire again, and her heart pounded furiously in her chest as she watched the erotic assault. There was no way it would fit inside her. No way.

"Damn, bitch!" Bullwhip growled. "You're always so wet."

"Please! In! Put it ... IN!" she pleaded. "Been so long! Stick that FAT COCK INSIDE M..."

Bullwhip roared and shoved, and Snow Angel's body arched. She threw her head back and screamed a loud, throaty "YESSSS!!" Her eyes practically bugged out as he impaled her tight frame with his immense hard cock. It was only a couple of inches inside her, but the young girl screamed and thrashed on the bed, fighting the sheets that pinned her down. Crystal gasped and slowly sank to the floor, sliding against the wall, her eyes riveted on them as she watched the two heroes fuck. Nobody is going to believe this. Nobody.

She blindly reached for her purse.

Snow Angel was screaming and laughing as she whipped her head back and forth, twisting her body and hips, and Bullwhip dropped down over her, pushing his massive rod deeper into her. "God DAMN you're tight!" he growled. "Gonna fuck you up GOOD!"

"GOD I missed this!" she wailed in response, shaking and writhing under his body. "FUCK ME! FUCK ME HARD!" He lowered his head down, and kissed her hard, snaking his tongue into her mouth. Snow Angel moaned as she sucked his tongue, being filled from his body from two directions at once.

Crystal watched them, and she quietly and carefully pulled her cell phone out of her purse. She pointed it to the two heroes and pressed the camera button.

FWOOSH! SMACK! "AAACKK!"

The snowball came out of nowhere and knocked the camera-phone out of Crystal's hand. Snow Angel was staring at the girl seriously. "Hey!" she scolded. "No pictures!"

Crystal blinked and blushed. "Um, I'm sorry. I..."

"You can watch if you want!" she continued. "Or you can join us! I kind of prefer that."

Crystal shuddered and stared at the two in shocked silence.

Snow Angel groaned. "Bull, could you?"

Bullwhip grabbed a blanket by the corner and flipped it. It lashed out across the room and whipped around the girl, yanking her from her feet. Crystal screamed as the living cloth twisted about her and pulled her to the bed. She landed on her knees, squatting in front of Bullwhip and over Snow Angel's head. The blanket whipped off her and the massive man grabbed her roughly by the arms. She shrieked, and the large shirt she wore ripped open by itself, exposing her naked body to both of the superheroes.

As Bullwhip leaned down and took one breast in his mouth, she felt two cold hands wrap over her thighs and pull her down and forward. Crystal shrieked and jumped as a chilled tongue licked the length of her kitty. She tensed her body and grabbed Bullwhip's head. "WAIT! STOP! I..." she tried to scream.

An oozing essence flowed into her from down below. A green energy, loving, healing, cooling, and fulfilling swept into her body. She twinged and gasped, and the essence filled her. Tingling, sparking, rejuvenating, she felt her heart beat faster. Her lungs filled with cool refreshing air, and she had the distinct impression that she could taste mint from her kitty. Her body tensed with a wave of energy, and her fingers and toes stretched with desire.

"I ... I ... Oh ... OH!"

Bullwhip thrust his hips forward in long powerful strokes, filling and emptying the superheroine. With each stroke, Snow Angel moaned loudly and plunged her tongue deep inside her kitty, and Crystal rolled her eyes back with her head as she gasped and ground her hips against the girls' cool head. Gone was the initial shock, and all that existed now was pleasure and desire. An endless supply of pleasure, and the endless demand of desire.

She had a brief curiosity about the effect of limitless supply and demand, and concluded to tell her economics class to go fuck itself. She pulled Bullwhips' head up from her breast and kissed him hard, licking his tongue while humping her kitty hard against Snow Angel's mouth, urging them both to go faster and harder.

Sparks boiled off Joey's hands in huge plumes, and he strained and grimaced, pushing the power out of his body. He grunted and gasped, forcing himself, driving the energy forward. Simon Riley, a thin boy of fourteen with Cerebral Palsy, stood three feet in front of him, propped up on his crutches. He was Joey's target.

"Come on, Joey. You can do it," Simon encouraged.

Joey's hands were shaking, and he was sweating with exertion. He could feel the power building and flowing, and spilling uselessly. It was getting out, but the connection was evading him. "It's not ... working," he gasped.

"Maybe you need to kiss your boyfriend," quipped Neal.

"Shut up, Neal," Joey barked.

"That's enough," Mr. Burgess snapped. "Concentrate, Joey."

Joey redoubled his efforts. The Omegaplasm surged and the sparks blossomed. He was aware of every eye in the gymnasium on him. He was the new kid, the one with the weird powers that nobody understood. He was the one who could not be classified: Not a Mutant, not a Science mutate, nor a Mage nor a Cosmic. He could see them all watching him, and he stood there, straining, pushing, his hands shaking, and everyone watched him being completely inept at doing anything.

It was humiliating.

He glanced over at Lynne. He saw her watching him with the same expectation and intensity that everyone else had. Failing in front of her seemed to make it all that much worse.

The power fluctuated and fell, and Joey dropped his hands in exhaustion, bent down, and braced himself on his knees as he hyperventilated and swayed with dizziness. Simon took a few steps towards him. "Good try, Joey."

Neal scoffed. "Was THAT it? When are we going to see him DO anything? Do you even HAVE powers?"

Mr. Burgess reviewed the recording on the tripod-mounted camera. "So, Joey. What happened? What did you feel?"

Joey carefully made his way back to the floor mats and sat down in his spot next to Jeff. "I um ... I couldn't feel him. I couldn't..." He glanced at Neal, and saw the red-haired jerk just waiting for him to say something even remotely gay-sounding. He decided to stop talking before saying he couldn't get inside Simon. "It just wasn't working."

"Couldn't get it up for him?" Neal spat and giggled stupidly.

"Oh, grow up, Neal," said Lynne, who sat next to her brother Jeff. Lynne Sullivan was a very attractive and curvaceous girl. She was pale and dark-haired like her brother, but she was down-right tan compared to the girl sitting on the other side of her. Sarah was ghost white, an albino, and she was wrapped in black clothes and wore dark glasses and a large black hat. She was the only one of their group not wearing normal gym clothes. Sarah sat with a notebook in her lap and she scribbled in it furiously, rocking forward and backward in an obsessive rhythm. Lynne turned to her. "Don't write down what he says!" she told her. "He's not worth it."

Sarah looked up and then at Neal. She then turned back to her notebook and sternly scratched something out.

"The good news," Mr. Burgess said, "is that I can tell you are reaching him. The power is hitting him. So it's just not making the final connection. But you're making progress. You're developing range. Good work, Joey."

Joey smiled. "Thanks."

"Neal! You're next." Mr. Burgess called out.

"All right!" he exclaimed, and he jumped up and onto the center mat. As Mr. Burgess brought out a large loop of grounding wire, Simon took a chair next to Joey.

"That was pretty good, Joey," said Simon. "You know, I almost felt something at one point."

Joey looked up in surprise. "Really?"

He shook his head. "Nah. But I like to be encouraging." He grinned.

Joey laughed. "Shut up," he joked to his friend, and as Neal and Mr. Burgess worked with the ground wire, he looked out across the gymnasium to the activities on the other side. The students over there all had close-range physical powers, not long-ranged ones like his group. Raquel caught his attention first. The tall African-American girl with the weird splotchy birthmarks was in a tight leotard which showed off her nice curves, and she was running, jumping, bouncing, and flipping on the exercise mats. She bounced unnaturally high on her hands and feet, propelled by her mutant ability to reflect energy. On another mat Kaelyn, an Australian exchange student with cat-like features rolled and tumbled in a combat practice, her long furry tail whipping about wildly.

"RRAARRGG!!" The yell came from Clyde, also across the room. He was huge again, his muscles stretching his tight shirt as his body expanded with new strength. He was power-lifting heavy weights, well into three hundred pounds. Joey rolled his eyes at the yell. He only did that for attention. Next to him was Brandon, one of his gang, a short blond kid. Brandon was on a treadmill and running at an insane speed, his legs a blur of motion.

The grounding wire was set in a loop, and as Neal took his place in the middle, Mr. Burgess hobbled over to set up a target. It was a large empty metal can set on top of a wooden table. Joey noticed Mr. Burgess' one artificial leg, and wondered once more how he had lost his leg. It was a story their teacher hadn't told them yet. "Okay!" Mr. Burgess said. "Start easy, and let's see if you can..."

BBZZAAAPP-CRACKLE! Neal postured with his palms opened wide and lightning exploded and rippled over his body. Bolts and arcs extended out and warped around, and were absorbed into the grounding loop. Everyone on the mat jolted at the sudden surge of power, especially Sarah, who loudly shrieked in fear.

"MISTER MARKS!" Mr. Burgess shouted at Neal. "I SAID TO..."

"I got this!" Neal boasted, and he threw his hand forward, pointing towards the target can. His hair stood up straight, extended by the static electricity, and large arcs of lightning blasted out of his hand. The bolts of lightning flew wildly, looping around the table and scorching the floor and wall behind it. Large arcs were sucked into the grounding wire.

Simon, sitting next to Joey, groaned and held his head.

"You okay Simon?" Joey asked.

"Yeah," he muttered. "He knows the electro-magnetic field bothers me, so that's why he does it. I'll be okay."

Neal continued his little performance, jumping from one extreme combat stance to another, alternately pushing one hand forward and then another, and sending streams of lighting from his fingers out towards his target. The lightning danced and wavered about, burning the table.

Joey watched the performance and frowned. He leaned over to Jeff. "Jeff, has he hit that thing yet?"

Jeff appeared momentarily distracted, apparently listening in to whatever Lynne was whispering to Sarah. "What?"

"Has he hit that can yet?"

"Oh, um, no. Don't think he's going to." He squinted at the scene. "My money is on the can."

Joey chuckled as Mr. Burgess blew his whistle, stopping Neal. As the lightning died down, Mr. Burgess walked up to the can and picked it up. "You know, this is still cold. Neal, what are you doing?"

"It's not MY fault! Joey and Jeff are distracting me! They keep making jokes about me."

"Stop acting like a joke, and we'll stop making them..." Joey mumbled to Jeff. Jeff snickered under his breath. So did Lynne, who apparently heard him. She smiled at him. His heart stirred at the sight.

"Stop it, you two," Mr. Burgess called to Joey and Jeff. He turned his attention to Neal. "Neal, it's not a dance. You're not trying to impress it. You're trying to hit it. I know you like those comic-book poses, but they don't work. How are you supposed to hold your hand?"

Neal grumbled and didn't answer. He lifted one hand up with his fingers cupped.

"And how WERE you holding you hand?"

He shifted and grumbled some more. He spread his fingers.

"Right." Mr. Burgess stepped behind Neal and grabbed his arm, pointing him towards the target. He also grabbed his stomach and pulled him so he stopped slumping and stood up straight. "Stand straight. Brace yourself. Fingers together. Channel the power from your core, through your arm, and out the base of your palm. With your fingers apart, the energy gets diverted in every direction. Push your fingers together, and guide the power AFTER it's left your hand, not as it leaves. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it, " he said with an annoyed tone.

"Good." The teacher released him and stepped away. The moment he stepped back, Neal slumped down again. "Stand up straight, and try again."

Neal continued to slump in defiance, but held his fingers cupped together. He concentrated.

BLAM!

The arc of lightning shot out and hit the can, blasting it off the table. Neal flipped back and landed on his butt. Everyone sitting on the mat burst out laughing.

Neal growled and sneered at the others, and was about to shout at them, but Mr. Burgess stepped up to him. "Neal? Why do we brace ourselves?"

He groaned. "For every action..." he started to recite.

"There is an equal and opposite reaction.," Mr. Burgess finished. "Very good. You hit your target today. Remember your physics, and don't practice at home. Sarah, you're next." As Neal slumped up and over to the side, Mr. Burgess pulled the grounding wire up. Sarah furiously scribbled a few more lines in her notebook and rocked a little faster as she wrote. "Sarah! Put it down! Up!" he called out a second time.

Lynne carefully reached over to Sarah and took the book. "I'll take care of it. Go ahead," she said, closing the book and taking her pen. Sarah looked about nervously, clawed the air with her now empty hand, and stood up. She shyly walked towards the exercise mat.

"And what have you been working on?" Mr. Burgess asked her.

"Um," she began quietly. "I've been doing ... the tendril ... with the ... thing..." Her voice was very meek, and she writhed her hands together and darted her head back and forth, looking around. "Can I have my book, please?"

"Later," Mr. Burgess promised. He set a rubber ball on the mat and stepped back. Sarah nervously looked around, and her hand dropped to her side. "Now what I want you to do is to summon a tendril..." he continued. "and pick up the ball." Joey noticed her fingers moving in odd patterns, and a glowing white energy tracing the air from her fingertips.

Mr. Burgess noticed too. "Sarah, don't start yet."

"I'm not," she defended.

"SARAH!" the teacher shouted, and he pointed to her hand.

Sarah looked down at her hand and saw the glyphs and symbols which hung in the air by her thigh. They flashed and exploded with a loud BAM! It was like a very loud balloon popping next to her. Sarah screeched, jumped, and ran a few feet while Neal laughed uproariously at the sight.

"Neal! Cut it out!" Mr. Burgess shouted.

"But that was funny!" he shouted back.

Sarah was holding her hands together and rocking back and forth. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she pleaded. "I didn't know I was ... I'm sorry."

"Are you okay?" the teacher asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. I just ... I'm sorry."

"Come on back."

Joey watched her return to the exercise mat and take her place, rocking and writhing her hands together. She was an odd girl. Joey used to think that his lot in life was pretty bad, being an orphan, being homeless, and having these powers that he couldn't control. But the day he met Sarah Moonglow Abercrombie and learned about her problems, he decided to never pity himself again, no matter how bad it got. Sarah was a mage, a sorceress, one of only two in the school of about sixty students (the other being Willow Booth), and along with being very skittish and an albino which made her hyper-sensitive to light, she also suffered from an obsessive compulsion disorder. It was called 'hypergraphia', which was a term he had to look up several times just in order to remember the word. Sarah had to write constantly. She could not stop. She kept a book and pen with her at all times and wrote all the time, copying conversations word-for-word and scribbling down every last thought that entered her head. Sometimes she would draw arcane symbols and diagrams that never made any sense to anyone, even Willow, but the notebook was her lifeline. Without it, she would still write, but just write in the air, without even thinking about it or noticing it. Normally this would not be a problem, but considering that she was a mage, and mages cast spells by writing in the air, it proved to be a dangerous combination.

Mr. Burgess coached her, and stood back, allowing Sarah to perform. She took several steadying breaths and concentrated, pointing one finger at the rubber ball and writing with the other hand. Faint symbols glowed and floated in the air before her as she meekly scratched them out.

"Bolder," Mr. Burgess encouraged her. "Be more impressive. It's a performance, remember?"

"Hey!" Neal said. "How come she gets to be impressive and I have to do things boring?"

"It's magic," the teacher answered. "Different physics. Mutations don't care about theatrics. Magic does."

A slight breeze emitted from Sarah's position, blowing her loose black clothes. Joey watched them as they rippled over her slender body. He could finally make out her shape underneath her drab clothes. She didn't have the full curves that Lynne had, but he could definitely tell she was a blossoming girl. Her young breasts fascinated him. Her long platinum blond hair billowed out, and the air tinkled with the faint sounds of bells as the magic built in her. Her finger glowed, and a long white tendril of energy extended outward and snaked in the air, slowly moving towards the rubber ball. She squinted and drew more symbols. The tendril gently batted the ball, and wrapped itself around the toy, lifting it upward.